ASE 324L

Lab #3: Strengthening Mechanisms and Aluminum Alloys

Purpose: This exercise is to serve as an introduction to an important aircraft structural material,

aluminum, and to strengthening mechanisms via heat treatments.

Background: Aluminum alloys are widely used in aircraft structures because of a number of
favorable characteristics, some of which are:

1. High strength to weight ratio

2. Non-rusting properties
3. Easy fabrication
4. Metallurgical control of structure and properties
5. Favorable economics.

For an overview of alloys of structural importance, refer to Table 1, Nominal Chemical

Composition – Wrought Alloys. Wrought alloys have been strain hardened as opposed to the cast
alloys that have not. The alloys in Table 1 are divided into seven families on the basis of the
principal alloying elements. The numerical prefix of the alloy designation system refers to the
principal element as follows:

ALLOY PRINCIPAL ELEMENT CHARACTERISTICS

1000 99% PURE AL commercially pure AL
2000 Cu strong, heat treatable
3000 Mn like 1000 but stronger
4000 Si high temperature strength
5000 Mg intermediate between 1000 & 2000
6000 Mg, Si, Cu, Cr corrosion resistant, formable, weldable
7000 Zn strongest

The remaining digits in the numerical designation indicate mill controls on the produce: 2024,
7075, etc.

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Aluminum Alloy Temper Designations (from www.matweb.com)
The physical properties exhibited by aluminum alloys are significantly influenced by the
treatment of the sample. A standardized system has been developed to designate these
treatments. The aluminum alloy data sheets (Table 2) will generally have a suffix temper
designation connected with them to indicate the treatment used to produce the properties listed.
Basic Designations:
• F As Fabricated - No special control has been performed to the heat treatment or strain
hardening after the shaping process such as casting, hot working, or cold working.
• O Annealed - This is the lowest strength, highest ductility temper.
• H Strain Hardened - (applied to wrought products only) Used for products that have
been strengthened by strain hardening, with or without subsequent heat treatment. The
designation is followed by two or more numbers as discussed below.
• T Solution Heat Treated - Used for products that have been strengthened by heat
treatment, with or without subsequent strain hardening. The designation is followed by
one or more numbers as discussed below.
• W Solution Heat Treated - This is seldom encountered because it is an unstable temper
that applies only to alloys that spontaneously age at ambient temperature after heat
treatment.
Temper Codes:
• H1 - Strain hardened only
• H2 - Strain hardened and partially annealed
• H3 - Strain hardened and stabilized
• H4 - Strain hardened and lacquered or painted. This assumes that thermal affects from
the coating process affect the strain hardening; not encountered often.
• T1 - Cooled from an elevated temperature shaping process and naturally aged to a
substantially stable condition.
• T2 - Cooled from an elevated temperature shaping process, cold worked, and naturally
aged to a substantially stable condition.
• T3 - Solution heat treated, cold worked, and naturally aged to a substantially stable
condition.
• T4 - Solution heat treated, and naturally aged to a substantially stable condition.
• T5 - Cooled from an elevated temperature shaping process then artificially aged.
• T6 - Solution heat treated then artificially aged.

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 • T7 - Solution heat treated then and overaged/stabilized.
• T8 - Solution heat treated, cold worked, then artificially aged.
• T9 - Solution heat treated, artificially aged, then cold worked.
• T10 - Cooled from an elevated temperature shaping process, cold worked, then
artificially aged.
The second digit (required) after the first H temper digit indicates the level of strain hardening
and is based on the minimum ultimate tensile strength obtained. The third digit (optional) is a
variation of the two digit temper.

Additional digits may be used after the first T temper digit to indicate subsequent stress relieving
by processes such as stretching, compressing, or a combination of the two.

Table 1 (Nominal Chemical Composition) lists the various alloys of aluminum and their
compositions. Table 2 (Typical Mechanical Properties) illustrates the effects of the addition of
various alloying elements and heat treatments. Table 3 (Standard Products) lists the standard
forms of wrought aluminum alloys. Table 4 (Recommended Heat Treatments) lists the
recommended temperatures and time for heat treatments.

Procedure: For this exercise we will examine the stress-strain behavior of several tempers of
2024 Aluminum, an alloy of about 4.5% Copper (Cu) in Aluminum (Al). The base alloy that we
will use is 2024-T351 whose heat treatment can be found in Table 4. Basically, T351 has been
solution treated, i.e. heated to 550° and then quenched to room temperature. The second
specimen that we will examine was annealed. It was heated to 550°, held there for 30 minutes,
and then slowly cooled in a furnace. The annealing should have completely removed any effects
of the T-351 treatment. The remaining specimens were aged by heating the base alloy T-351 to
190°C, holding there for 0.5, 2, 6 and 24 hours, respectively, and then slowly cooling back to
room temperature. This essentially adds an aging treatment to the base alloy to the point where
the material is aged to some degree. See Table 5 for the list of specimens and their heat
treatment.

These processes will be discussed with reference to the Cu-Al phase diagram (Fig. 10.3), time-
temperature-transformation (TTT) diagram (Fig.10.5), and the yield strength vs. aging time
diagram (Fig. 10.7), as shown below for convenience.

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 Table 5. Specimen Heat Treatments

Specimen # Heat Treatment

1 T351
2 Annealed 550˚ C
3 Aged at 190˚ C for 0.5 hrs
4 Aged at 190˚ C for 2.0 hrs
5 Aged at 190˚ C for 6.0 hrs
6 Aged at 190˚ C for 24 hrs

A tension test will be conducted on each temper of Aluminum. The specimen will be
loaded (under displacement control) to failure. We may interrupt each experiment to check on
elastic unloading and reloading. The axial extensometer and crosshead displacement (suitably
normalized) will be used as measures of the axial strain. The diametrical extensometer is used to
measure the transverse strain.

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Science: Strengthening Mechanisms

Solid solution hardening: This is done by adding impurities (alloying elements) into a metal to
form a solid solution (alloy). For example, the 2000 family of Al alloys are formed by adding
copper (Cu) into aluminum (Al). The solution treatment typically consists of heating the alloy to
an elevated temperature (about 550°C for Al 2000), holding it there for some time, and then
rapidly cooling by quenching. This treatment results in a homogeneous structure in which the
alloying elements are evenly dispersed in the Al crystalline lattice in a supersaturated solution.
Since the alloying element (Cu) is larger than the Al atoms, the Cu atoms will not fit into the
lattice the same as Al atoms; the lattice will thus be distorted locally around the substituted Cu
atoms. See Figure 1 below. This lattice distortion inhibits dislocation motion thus hardening the
alloy. In addition, the supersaturated state is one where more Cu atoms are squeezed into the Al
than should be there at the room temperature.

Pure Aluminum Aluminum and Copper

Substitutional Solution

Figure 1: Two dimensional view of Al lattices

The specific details of the solution treatments for the 2000 family Al alloys are given in
Table 4; this table gives the temperature to which the alloy is heated and then quenched from to
give the homogeneous structure.

Precipitate and dispersion strengthening: When a solid solution at a high temperature is

cooled slowly to room temperature, the impurity atoms (e.g., Cu) may form precipitates as small
particles. The precipitates obstruct the motion of dislocations, thus strengthening the alloy.
Similarly, dispersion strengthening is achieved by mixing a dispersoid (small particles) into a
powdered metal or ceramics, followed by compacting and sintering the mixed powders.

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 The annealed 2000 Al alloy is heated into the same temperature range as for the solution
treated alloys, but is then cooled very slowly instead of quenched. The annealed structure has
two phases. The Cu atoms diffuse out of the Al lattice and form an intermetallic compound,
CuAl2, as a distinct phase within the Al matrix. The CuAl2 precipitates typically nucleate and
grow on the grain boundaries. A very slow cooling gives large precipitates spaced well apart,
providing very limited strengthening.
An intermediate cooling rate from the solution temperature could produce a finer
structure, with small precipitates closely spaced; this makes the alloy harder. If the cooling rate
is too high, however, it produces a supersaturated solid solution at room temperature, without
any precipitates at all.

Aging is a process to achieve large increases in yield strength by forming specific

precipitates in a controlled manner. For 2000 Al alloys, aging is accomplished by heating a
solution treated alloy (quenched from 550°C) to a warm temperature (190° C in our case) and
holding it there for a prescribed time, during which the Cu atoms diffuse out of the Al lattice and
form precipitates with a very fine structure. See Figure 2 for illustration.
During the aging treatment, there are two types of precipitates that form: coherent and
incoherent, the difference being that the coherent precipitate has continuity with the Al lattice
and the incoherent precipitate does not. The coherent precipitate causes large local deformations
in the Al lattice which decrease dislocation mobility, thus hardening the alloy. The incoherent
precipitate does not strain the Al lattice and has much less effect on the hardening and is not
desired. Unfortunately, the incoherent precipitate is the equilibrium structure and will form if the
alloy is aged for too long or at too high a temperature. The optimum aging temperatures and
times are given for the various tempers in Table 4.

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Figure 2: Stages in the precipitation of CuAl2. Disc-shaped GP zones (b) nucleate
homogeneously from supersaturated solid solution (a). (c) Some of the GP zones grow to form
precipitates called θ”. (d) Precipitates called θ’ nucleate and grow. (e) Equilibrium CuAl2 (θ-
phase) nucleates and grows.

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Work hardening: this is achieved by cold rolling the Al alloy, similar to the cold-rolled steel in
Lab #1. Plastic deformation at room temperature generates more dislocations, and the dislocation
motion is obstructed by other dislocations, increasing the resistance and thus strength.

Further Reading:
Chapter 6 in Materials: Engineering, Science, Processing and Design.

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 Data Analysis and Lab Report

Prepare a formal report, and answer the following questions.

In section Experimental and Data Reduction Procedures:

1. Plot the engineering stress-strain diagrams for each specimen. In each plot, compare the
responses obtained from the axial extensometer and the crosshead displacement, and
comment on any differences. Finally, make one summary plot of the stress-strain diagrams
for all specimens using the extensometer data.

In section Results and Discussion:

2. From the stress-strain diagrams, determine and compare the following with a table:

a) Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio (use the initial tangential modulus if necessary; plot
the transverse strain vs axial strain diagram to determine Poisson’s ratio for each
specimen);
b) Yield stress at 0.2% offset;
c) Ultimate tensile strength;
d) Toughness;
e) Ductility.

3. For each specimen, describe the heat treatment procedure and the produced microstructure,
and explain the hardening mechanism that gives rise to the measured stress-strain behavior.

4. Based on the experimental results, which of the tempers would provide the optimum
performance for structural components in aircraft, where high strength and toughness are
required.

5. Explain how more dislocations can be generated during loading and how this relates to strain
hardening.

6. Explain the tensile yield strength of polycrystalline metals (i.e., σ Y = 3τ Y rather than σ Y = 2τ Y )
and the effect of grain size.

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